An ultramarathon training plan is not a marathon plan with longer long runs. If you can already run a marathon, you have most of the fitness you need. What you still have to build is the ability to stay on your feet for six, eight or twelve hours (or far longer in the mountains), to eat and drink while you do it, to walk often and with purpose, and to hold back early when every part of you wants to go. Train those things, keep your longest run well short of race distance, and the ultra distance is far more achievable than it looks on paper.
Here’s the short version: run at least one marathon first. Give yourself around six months from regular running, with the race-specific work in the last two to three months. Run four days a week, built around one long run on a steadily increasing schedule, add strength training, practise walking and fuelling in every long run, and taper properly. It works for a local 50K trail race, a 100km road race or a mountain ultra in the Alps. Most first-time ultra runners don’t fail because they did too little. They fail because they started too fast, under-fuelled or arrived on the start line tired.
In this guide:
- What counts as an ultramarathon
- How long it takes to train for an ultra
- How many marathons to run first
- What an ultramarathon training plan looks like each week
- How many kilometres (and miles) a week you need
- Your longest training run
- Time on feet and back-to-back long runs
- Walking and run-walk strategy
- Training for hilly and trail ultras
- Strength training
- Fuelling, gut training and hydration
- Pacing
- Mental strategies for race day
- The taper and recovery
- FAQs
What counts as an ultramarathon?
An ultramarathon is any race longer than the standard marathon distance of 42.195km (26.2 miles). That’s the definition from World Athletics, so a 50K trail race counts just as much as a 100-mile mountain race.
In practice, ultras come in a few broad types, and each one changes how you train:
| Type of ultra | Examples | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Short ultra | 50K (31 miles) road and trail races, the most common first ultra | Marathon fitness plus hills, fuelling and patience |
| Long road ultra | 100km (62 miles) road races; Comrades in South Africa, about 90km (56 miles) | Many hours on your feet, quads that survive the descents, planned walking |
| Trail and mountain ultra | UTMB’s OCC (50K) and CCC (100K) in the Alps, and UTMB itself (174km, 9,700m of climbing) | Climbing, power hiking, technical descents, carrying kit |
| Timed or multi-day events | Backyard-style events, stage races | Managing fatigue and recovery between efforts |
Most runners start with a 50K, and that’s the distance this guide leans towards, with notes for longer races where the training changes. Some of my examples come from Comrades, which the Guinness World Records lists as the world’s oldest ultramarathon (and its largest). I’ve coached thousands of runners through it, so it’s where my numbers are most detailed, but the principles carry straight over to your race, wherever it is.
How long does it take to train for an ultramarathon?
If you already run regularly, plan on about six months to train for your first ultra, with the race-specific work in the final two to three months. If you’re starting from scratch, give yourself closer to a year, because you need a marathon (and the base behind it) before you can sensibly train for an ultra.
Those six months don’t all look like ultra training. The early weeks are about consistent easy running, strength work and a gradual build in your long run. Then comes a marathon, which for some ultras is also your qualifier. Only after that do the longest runs, the hilliest routes and the serious fuelling practice begin.
Don’t start your hardest work too early. Not even the best athletes can sustain more than 12 weeks of peak training, so piling in the big weeks months ahead of race day is one of the quickest ways to arrive at the start line flat.
| Phase | Roughly when (6-month build) | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Base | Months 1-2 | Easy running, strength training, long run increasing steadily |
| Marathon | Months 3-4 | Run your marathon or qualifier as a controlled effort, then recover |
| Ultra-specific | Months 4-6 | Peak long runs, hills, walking, fuelling and kit practice |
| Taper | Final 3 weeks | Cut volume, keep some intensity, arrive fresh |
How many marathons should you run before an ultra?
You need at least one marathon before your first ultra, and for many of the big races it isn’t optional. Popular ultras often ask you to prove you’re ready before they’ll give you a place.
The rules vary by race. To run Comrades in 2027, you need an official marathon in 4:59:59 or faster. To enter the lottery for the UTMB Mont-Blanc races, UTMB requires a valid UTMB Index from a qualifying race (a 50K index or longer for CCC, a 100K or 100-mile index for UTMB itself) plus at least one Running Stone. Check your own race’s entry rules early, because a qualifier can shape your whole build-up.
Even if your chosen ultra has no qualifier, a marathon tells you how your body, your stomach and your head cope with a long effort. Better to find that out at 30km (19 miles) of a marathon than at 30km of a 50K.
For a big ultra like Comrades, I find two marathons and one ultra, or one marathon and two ultras, is enough in the five months before race day for most runners. Two rules apply whatever race you’re training for:
- Leave at least three weeks between marathons or ultras. Your body needs that time to recover and absorb the work.
- Run them as training, not as races. Outside your qualifier, aim to run training races within about 10 seconds per kilometre (about 16 seconds per mile) of your planned ultra pace. It will feel very slow. That’s the point.
What does an ultramarathon training plan look like each week?
A good ultramarathon training plan is built on four days of running a week: a higher-intensity session, an easy run, a long run and an easy run the day after it, plus strength training on three days. That’s three runs of mixed intensity and duration plus the long run, not three easy runs.
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Monday | Strength training |
| Tuesday | Higher-intensity session (often hills) |
| Wednesday | Strength training |
| Thursday | Easy run plus strength training |
| Friday | Rest |
| Saturday | Long run |
| Sunday | Easy run |
Friday stays free so you’re fresh for Saturday. Every fourth week is a lighter recovery week, and I’d warn you not to sneak extra training into those weeks. You don’t get fitter while you train. You get fitter in between the training, when your body repairs the damage and adapts so you handle the next long run better.
If you’re newer to running and only managing three runs a week, keep the same strength days and run on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The Sunday easy run is the fourth day you add once your body is ready for it.
How easy is easy?
Easy means a pace you could hold a conversation at, and for most runners it’s slower than they think. Easy runs are more important than you realise. They let you absorb the hard sessions, and if you run them too fast you end up tired for the big sessions, which is exactly the wrong way round.
To give you real numbers: my first-timer programme for Comrades, set for a runner with a 4:50 marathon, uses 7:00-7:36 min/km (11:16-12:14 min/mile) for easy runs and 7:10-7:55 min/km (11:32-12:44 min/mile) for long runs. If that looks slow to you, it’s working as intended.
How many kilometres a week do you need to train for an ultramarathon?
Less than most runners fear. Even for a long road ultra of about 90km (56 miles), a first-time finisher needs roughly 850-1,000km (530-620 miles) in total over the five months before race day, building from about 40km (25 miles) a week to 60km (37 miles) a week at the peak. A 50K needs less.
Here’s how that scales with ambition, using Comrades finish times as the yardstick because it’s the race I have the most data on. The weeks are counted from the start of a five-month build:
| Goal for a ~90km ultra | Total over 5 months | Months 1-2 per week | Months 3-4 per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish (under 12 hours) | 850-1,000km (530-620 miles) | 40 to 50km (25-31 miles) | 50 to 60km (31-37 miles) |
| Under 11 hours | 900-1,100km (560-685 miles) | 50 to 60km (31-37 miles) | 60 to 80km (37-50 miles) |
| Under 10 hours | 1,000-1,200km (620-745 miles) | 60 to 70km (37-43 miles) | 70 to 85km (43-53 miles) |
| Under 9 hours | 1,000-1,600km (620-995 miles) | 70 to 80km (43-50 miles) | 80 to 90km (50-56 miles) |
You won’t hit these numbers every week, and you shouldn’t try to. Recovery weeks are lower, and the weeks you run a marathon or ultra as training are much bigger. A first-timer who runs a training marathon might have an 80-90km (50-56 mile) week, followed by an easier week, so the two average out close to the 60km (37 miles) they need.
Can you run more? Experienced runners can, as long as they’re recovering. But if you have extra time, my answer is seldom “run more”. Add strength training, a swim or a ride instead. You’ll gain fitness without the extra pounding.
How long should your longest ultramarathon training run be?
Much shorter than race distance. For a 50K or 56km ultra, your longest training runs should sit around 30-36km (19-22 miles). For a road ultra of about 90km (56 miles), no one needs to run more than 50km (31 miles) in training.
Once you’ve finished one ultra in your build-up, you are in essence ready for a race like Comrades. Beyond a certain point, longer runs may help your confidence, but physically they can do more damage than they’re worth, and the fatigue spills into the next few weeks of training. Your fitness, your pacing and your fuelling carry you through the extra distance on race day.
I time that 50km run by experience: six weeks before race day for first-timers, five weeks for most runners and four weeks for the fastest. Most runners only need three marathon-or-longer efforts in the five months before a long ultra.
And leave out the crazy events, like running three races in a single day. For longer mountain races and 100-milers, the race is simply too long to rehearse in one go, which is where time on feet and back-to-back long runs are helpful.
Time on feet vs distance in ultra training
In ultra training, the hours you spend on your feet matter as much as the kilometres you cover. That’s why I prescribe long runs by time, at a controlled long-run pace, rather than by distance.
Time-based long runs let faster runners progress naturally, while keeping slower runners from spending excessive hours on their feet. A 30km (19 mile) long run takes one runner two and a half hours and another runner nearly four. They are not the same training dose, and planning by time prevents unnecessary physical and mental load.
My first-timer Comrades programme builds from runs of just over an hour early on to long runs of more than three hours later in the build.
Two quick examples show why this works. Comrades gives you 12 hours for about 90km, an average of roughly 8:00 min/km (12:52 min/mile) including walking, aid stations and toilet stops. UTMB allows up to 45 hours 30 minutes for 174km with 9,700m of climbing, a pace nobody would recognise as running. For most ultra runners, race day is a long, steady effort, not a fast one, and your training should prepare you to be out there for that long.
Back-to-back long runs for ultra training
Back-to-back long runs, a long run on Saturday followed by a longer-than-usual run on Sunday, are a common way to get used to running on tired legs without one huge run. In the weekly structure above, that simply means extending Sunday’s easy run on a few chosen weekends.
Keep Sunday’s run easy, use it to practise walking and eating, and treat it as a bigger week. That means the following week needs to be lighter. Back-to-backs are a tool for the ultra-specific phase, not something to do every weekend from the start, and they’re built into my Comrades Marathon Roadmap for exactly that reason.
If you’d like a plan that already has the long runs, back-to-backs, walk breaks and recovery weeks laid out for you, Join Coach Parry for my training plans, which run all the way up to ultra distances. Training for Comrades? My Comrades Marathon Roadmap is built for that race.
Walking in an ultramarathon: run-walk strategy
Planned walking is a strategy, not a failure. Very few people run every step of a long ultra (at Comrades I’d estimate it’s less than 1% of the field), and almost everyone who tries ends up forced into long, unplanned walks later on.
Walk breaks give your legs short rests, so you hold a more consistent pace for longer. They also let you move through aid stations calmly and eat and drink properly before you set off again.
In my programmes, first-timers walk for one minute every 3-6km (2-4 miles) on their long runs, and faster runners every 6km (4 miles). On the big hills, I switch to run-walk intervals such as one minute running and one minute walking. Practise this in every long run and training race. It teaches you the tactic and it teaches you how easy “easy” really needs to be for the first third of an ultra.
How to train for a hilly or trail ultramarathon
You train for a hilly ultra with a weekly hill session, long runs on hilly routes and specific downhill practice, because the descents do as much damage as the climbs. For trail ultras, add steep power hiking, training on similar terrain and running with the kit you’ll carry.
Hill sessions for ultra runners
- Short hill repeats: 60-90 seconds up a moderate hill at a strong effort, jogging back down to recover. These build strength and power. My guide to hill repeats and working out the gradient helps you pick the right hill.
- Long steady climbs: 8-15 minutes of continuous climbing at a controlled effort. This is what most ultra climbs actually feel like.
- Hilly long runs: find the longest climbs near you and put some of them late in your long runs, so you practise climbing on tired legs.
Training your quads for the downhills
Downhill running loads your quads eccentrically, as the muscle lengthens under load, and that’s what leaves so many ultra runners walking stiff-legged down the final hills. The good news is that it’s trainable.
Research in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine describes the repeated bout effect: a previous bout of eccentric exercise reduces the muscle damage from a later one, and that protection can last for weeks or even months. So build your downhill running gradually through the training block, starting with short, gentle descents and running them at controlled long-run effort, not flat out.
On the descents themselves, lean slightly forward and increase your cadence, so your foot lands closer to under your body rather than crashing down heel-first. That reduces the braking load on your quads.
Trail ultra training
On steep trail climbs you will almost certainly walk at times, so practise power hiking with purpose rather than treating it as a rest. Get used to the terrain you’ll race on, and train with the pack and kit you’ll be carrying. One of our athletes, John Fowler, did exactly this in the UK on his way to a UTMB qualifier, training with a full-weight ultra pack on his Sunday long run. You can read how John trained for his mountain ultras.
Expect your average pace on trail runs to look slow on Strava. That’s fine. Effort and time on feet are what count.
Strength training for ultramarathon runners
Strength training is one of the most valuable things an ultra runner can do. It improves running economy by 2-8%, helps you avoid injury and keeps you moving well deep into a long race, when tired muscles let your form fall apart.
A systematic review by Blagrove and colleagues in Sports Medicine found that strength training improved running economy compared with running alone, and suggested two to three sessions a week using a mix of methods.
This is how I spread it through a five-month ultra build, and you can line it up with your own race date:
- Months 1-2: two to three sessions a week
- Months 3-4: two sessions a week
- Final month (taper): one session a week, to hold on to your strength gains
Focus on the muscles that carry you up and down hills: squats, lunges and step-ups for your quads and glutes, calf raises and single-leg work for stability. Include exercises that load the quads as they lengthen, such as slow step-downs, because that’s exactly what long descents ask of them. You don’t need a gym contract. Most of it can be done at home with body weight and a few resistance bands.
Want to finish strong instead of hanging on? My free strength plan for runners is one session a week at home, with clear descriptions, the exact reps and short videos for every exercise.
Fuelling for ultras: how to train your gut
Race-day fuelling is a skill you build in training. Every long run is a chance to practise eating and drinking at ultra effort, using the products you plan to use on race day, so your stomach knows what’s coming.
Your gut adapts to what you ask of it. A review by Asker Jeukendrup, Training the Gut for Athletes, concluded that the gut is highly adaptable and should be trained for the conditions it will face, with practice likely to improve carbohydrate absorption and reduce the chance or severity of stomach problems.
How much to eat and drink during an ultra
The International Society of Sports Nutrition’s position stand on ultramarathon nutrition gives these starting points:
| What | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Carbohydrate | 30-50g per hour |
| Fluid | 450-750ml per hour (about 150-250ml every 20 minutes) |
| Sodium | Possibly more than most commercial sports drinks provide |
| Caffeine | Used strategically in the later stages to sustain performance |
Start eating early, before you feel you need it, and keep it steady. If you’re going to use caffeine late in the race or through the night, try it in a long run first.
Don’t overdrink
Drinking too much is more dangerous than mild dehydration. The international consensus statement on exercise-associated hyponatraemia identifies sustained overdrinking as the single most important risk factor, and recommends drinking to thirst. Use the fluid ranges above as a guide and let thirst decide the detail. If you feel unwell during or after a long run, get medical help rather than assuming you just need to drink more.
Ultramarathon pacing strategy
Start slower than feels sensible and stay disciplined for the first third. One of the hardest things to get right in any ultra is the early pacing, and almost no one has the skill to run easy enough at the start.
The fix starts in training. Your long runs and training races are where you learn what your ultra pace actually feels like. That’s why I want your training races close to your planned ultra pace. Race your training runs and you teach yourself the wrong pace.
On race day:
- Use a pacing plan matched to a realistic goal. Base it on your recent marathon time and the course profile, not on the time you’d like.
- If you drift ahead of your plan early, walk more. Banking time in the first third almost always costs you more in the last third.
- Pace by effort on the hills. Walk the steep climbs and run the descents under control.
- Check in at landmarks or aid stations. Compare yourself to your plan at set points rather than reacting to every split.
Mental strategies for the dark patches of an ultra
Every ultra has low points, and the runners who finish are the ones who expected them and had a plan. The way I put it to Comrades runners: your training gets you to 70km, and your head gets you to the finish line. That’s true of any ultra.
You prepare your mind in training, not on the day:
- Break the race into sections. Run from one aid station, climb or landmark to the next, not 50, 100 or 170 kilometres at once.
- Rehearse the low points. Your longest runs and back-to-back weekends will give you tired, flat moments. Practise what you’ll do when they arrive.
- Check the basics first. When a dark patch hits, ask when you last ate and drank, then walk for a minute, eat something and reset.
- Know the course. The more you know about where the big climbs and descents are, the fewer nasty surprises you’ll have.
- Have a clear reason. Know why you’re out there before the race starts, so you can find it again at the hard bits.
How to taper for an ultramarathon
The taper is where you cash in your training, not where you prove you’ve done enough. For a 50K, cut back over the final three weeks. For a 90km road ultra such as Comrades, the wind-down starts earlier: your longest run is five to six weeks out, so it already feels like a taper, but we only truly taper from three weeks out.
A meta-analysis in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that an effective approach was a two-week taper in which training volume is cut by 41-60%, while keeping intensity and frequency. In practice, that means fewer and shorter runs, but not stopping all your faster running. Short, controlled efforts keep your legs feeling sharp.
Keep one strength session a week through the taper, and avoid the two classic mistakes: testing your fitness with one more long run in the final weeks, and cramming in sessions you missed earlier. No single session or long run can define the success of a plan. The fitness is already there.
How long to recover after an ultramarathon
Longer than most runners expect. After a 90km ultra such as Comrades, my guidance is two weeks with no running, light cross-training such as swimming or cycling in week three, and short, easy 20-30 minute jogs in week four before structured training starts again.
Shorter ultras need less, but don’t rush back. Treat the first couple of weeks as recovery, not as a chance to build on your new fitness. Sleep, good food and patience will do more for you than any recovery gadget.
My four-week recovery plan after Comrades sets this out week by week.
If you’re over 50, recovery is even more important to get right, and my guide to running over 50 covers how to adjust your training around it.
Ultramarathon training plan FAQs
Can a beginner run an ultramarathon?
Yes, if you give yourself enough time and run a marathon first. From regular running, allow about six months. From scratch, allow closer to a year, and follow a plan that matches your current ability rather than the time you’d like to run.
How long does it take to train for a 50K ultra?
If you’ve recently run a marathon, the 50K-specific work fits into the final two to three months of training. If you run regularly but haven’t done a marathon yet, give yourself about six months so you can build up, run a marathon and recover before the ultra-specific block.
How many miles a week should you run for an ultramarathon?
Less than you’d think. For a first long road ultra of about 90km, a finisher builds from about 25 miles (40km) a week to around 37 miles (60km) a week at the peak, with bigger weeks when a training race falls in them. A 50K needs less.
Do you need to run the full distance in training?
No. For a 50K, long runs of around 30-36km (19-22 miles) are enough, and for a 90km road ultra no one needs more than 50km (31 miles). Going further adds fatigue and injury risk without adding much fitness.
Get the right ultra plan for you
An ultramarathon rewards patience more than any other race distance. Consistency outweighs any specific long run: build steadily, recover properly, practise walking and eating until they’re second nature, and arrive at the start fresh. Do that and your first ultra is far more achievable than it looks.
Wherever your ultra is, Join Coach Parry for my full library of training plans, from 5km all the way to ultra distances, with strength classes and coach support on the higher membership tiers.
If Comrades is your goal, my Comrades Marathon Roadmap gives you a structured build-up matched to your goal, from base training through the taper to race day.
See you out there, and enjoy every hour of it.
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